Stephen Colbert's audience booed in disgust at Bill Cosby's release from jail. 'Me too,' Colbert agreed.

"I've got good news and I've got bad news — the bad news is I lied about the good news, and both bads combine to be the worst news: Bill Cosby has been released from prison after his sexual assault conviction was overturned," Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday's Late Show. The audience booed, and Colbert said he agreed with them — "or to put that another way, me too." Cosby wasn't exonerated, he's "getting off on a technicality" stemming from a 2005 agreement Cosby signed with the prosecutor at the time, Bruce Castor, he added. "Now, if the name Bruce Castor rings a bell, it's because he's the same paragon of legal ethics who went on to represent the former president during his second Senate impeachment trial. His business card just says 'Bruce Castor: Actual Devil's Advocate.'"

"In other news, the country is as hot as hell — so at least Cosby has a preview of the afterlife," Colbert joked darkly. After talking about the weather, he turned to politics. "It's the last day of June 2021, so naturally everyone's focused on the 2024 presidential election," he grimaced. Sen. Tom Cotton's Iowa pushups were overshadowed by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's National Guard deployment to the southern border — and no, not the one with Nebraska. "The strangest and most unconstitutional part of this story is that Noem is paying for the deployment with a 'private donation'" from a GOP mega-donor in Tennessee, Willis Johnson, Colbert said. "For the money, the donor got a private army and a 'This American Junta' tote bag."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.